Abstract

Availability of sufficient quantity and quality of sugarcane planting materials from conventional seed source is one of the major challenges in the Ethiopian sugar estates. To circumvent this challenge, tissue culture technology is found to be the best alternative for which in vitro propagation protocol is a key pre-request. Thus, the present study was aimed to optimize protocol for in vitro rooting and acclimatization of two elite sugarcane genotypes i.e., N52 and N53. Experiments were laid out in a completely randomized design with factorial treatment arrangements. Half strength MS liquid media supplemented with combination of Sucrose (0, 40, 50, 60 and 70 g/l) and NAA (0,3,5 and 7 mg/l) along with two sugarcane genotypes (N52, N53) were used for rooting while substrate containing sand, soil and farmyard manure in six different ratios (1:1:0, 1:1:1, 1:2:1, 2:1:1, 1:1:2 and 1:2:0) were used for acclimatization. With regard to in vitro rooting, ½ strength liquid MS medium + 50 g/l sucrose + 3 mg/l NAA induced the highest rooting (100%) with 23.5 ± 1.29 average root number per shoot and 4.95 cm ± 0.06 cm root length in genotype N52 while 5 mg/l NAA + 50 g/l sucrose induced the highest (100%) rooting response with an average of 21.76 ± 0.57 root number per shoot with 4.54 cm ± 0.06 cm root length in sugarcane genotype N53. In acclimatization, best survival rate (94% in N52 and 100% in N53) was achieved on substrate mixtures containing sand + soil in 1:1: ratios. Thus, it can be deduced that this protocol can be used successfully for in vitro rooting and acclimatization of these genotypes.